Regent questions criticism of ‘Classic Learning Test’ as alternative to ACT, SAT

• A Board of Regents study team found the Classic Learning Test is too young, and too little data is available on its efficacy, to incorporate into the 18-year-old "regent admission index."
• Regent David Barker, who suggested the board look into adding the CLT to its RAI, took issue with some of the study team's findings.
• Barker suggested the study team's report inaccurately portrayed the CLT as a fringe alternative to the ACT and SAT only taken by students in private and religious schools.
• “The College Board, which oversees the SATs, says there is little evidence proving that the CLT can adequately assess college preparedness. In other news, Coke thinks Pepsi doesn't adequately quench thirst.”

AMES — Iowa’s Board of Regents is not ready to include in its automatic-admission scoring system a relatively new “Classic Learning Test” gaining traction nationally, especially in conservative-leaning states, as an alternative to the traditional ACT and SAT tests.

An “admissions study team” — under direction of the state university provosts — looked into it after Regent David Barker in September asked the campuses to review the test and its suitability for use in admissions decisions across Iowa’s public universities.

Among reasons the team advised against formally incorporating the test into the 18-year-old “regent admission index” calculation — at least for now — is lacking research and evidence that, for example, a “score from the CLT could be used for placement purposes for students in mathematics or English courses — as is current practice with the SAT and ACT.”

“The inability to use CLT for course placement is problematic,” according to a report the study team presented Wednesday to the regents, who are meeting this week at Iowa State University.

The current admission index uses cumulative grade-point average, ACT composite score and number of years of approved high school courses to calculate a score for applicants to the University of Iowa, Iowa State University and University of Northern Iowa. In-state applicants earning a 245 or above get automatic admission.

‘Issues of competition’

The admissions study team did recommend the universities continue accepting CLT scores as part of individual academic reviews and test-optional pathways for admission — which have become more common since the universities in 2022 went “test optional,” meaning applicants no longer must submit ACT or SAT scores.

But Barker pressed the team Wednesday on some of its findings and recommendations to keep the CLT out of the index calculation.

“Do you think that using the CLT would be a bigger experiment than our experiment of going test optional?” Barker said of the change the campuses made in the wake of the pandemic. “Or was going test optional kind of a larger and more risky step?”

Brent Gage, UI associate vice president for enrollment management and strategy, told Barker the most challenging piece of going test-optional has been the extra work created for staff — who’ve had to conduct more individual reviews and evaluate more academic records.

Although that test-optional path remains an option for applicants to Iowa’s regent universities — even as some selective schools go back to requiring scores — study team members on Wednesday stressed the time they’ve spent time fine-tuning and researching the regent admissions index to ensure its metrics reflect student success at the college level.

They simply need more information before recalibrating it to include CLT scores.

“CLT concordance tables with SAT and ACT are not fully tested,” according to the team’s report. “The College Board raises legitimate concerns about the validity of CLT concordance tables related to the SAT. The absence of a representative sample of CLT scores makes direct comparisons with SAT or ACT scores, both of which have been validated and analyzed for decades, impossible.”

Barker cited a Wall Street Journal editorial that wrote, “The College Board, which oversees the SATs, says there is little evidence proving that the CLT can adequately assess college preparedness. In other news, Coke thinks Pepsi doesn't adequately quench thirst.”

“I’m just saying there are some issues of competition in this also,” Barker said. “The duopoly on testing naturally doesn't want competitors.”

‘Relative youth of the CLT’

Jeremy Tate, who has degrees in secondary education and religious studies, in 2015 developed the Classic Learning Test with a focus on “classical education” basics like logic, reasoning and reading.

Although not all colleges accept CLT scores, more than 250 institutions welcome it as a replacement for the ACT and SAT. And Florida last year passed legislation approving CLT scores for application to state universities, scholarships and graduation requirements.

In this week’s regent documents, the study group reported at least 25,000 students have taken the CLT since it was developed a decade ago. “For comparison, the SAT was taken by 1.9 million students in 2023, and the ACT was taken by 1.4 million students in that same year,” according to the group’s report.

But Barker again took issue with those stats.

“Did you know that in this academic year, the CLT has been taken by over 74,000 students — in just this year?” he said.

Another criticism of the test in the report noted a lack of “predictive efficacy” for students like those who attend the UI, ISU and UNI.

“The sample upon which the psychometric properties were derived included only high school students who were either home-schooled or attended private or charter high schools, thus is not representative of the student bodies of Iowa’s public universities,” according to the report.

But Barker countered that 77 percent of students who took the test in the last year were in public schools.

Board Chief Academic Officer Rachel Boon told Barker some of the group’s data already is outdated — given they initiated their research in September. “I’m suspecting those are pretty recent numbers,” Boon said of Barker’s data.

To Barker’s question of whether the study group reached out to the Classic Learning company, group members said they did not.

“Even with the recent acceptance of CLT as an admissions test at the University of New Mexico, all public institutions in Florida, and select other public institutions, any study related to student outcomes at public colleges and universities will not happen for years,” according to their report.

Another report presented to regents Wednesday showed the predictive value of the existing admissions index system. “As Iowa’s graduation rate for students at 4-year public universities has led the nation during this time, the RAI continues to be a sound predictor of success in college,” according to that report.

Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com